ended by very unpleasant consequences to me, and might have
committed the Senate in a very different way. I begged of him, once for
all, to set aside in these affairs all consideration of my personal
danger: and the Syndic, after a conversation of more than two hours,
departed more uneasy in his mind than when he arrived, and conjuring me
to give a faithful report of the facts as they had happened.

M. Doormann was a very worthy man, and I gave a favourable representation
of his excuses and of the readiness which he had always evinced to keep
out of the Correspondent articles hostile to France; as, for example, the
commencement of a proclamation of the Emperor of Germany to his subjects,
and a complete proclamation of the King of Sweden. As it happened, the
good Syndic escaped with nothing worse than a fright; I was myself
astonished at the success of my intercession. I learned from the
Minister for Foreign Affairs that the Emperor was furiously indignant on
reading the article, in which the French army was outraged as well as he.
Indeed, he paid but little attention to insults directed against himself
personally. Their eternal repetition had inured him to them; but at the
idea of his army being insulted he was violently enraged, and uttered the
most terrible threats.

It is worthy of remark that the Swedish and English Ministers, as soon as
they read the article, waited upon the editor of the Correspondent, and
expressed their astonishment that such a libel should have been
published. "Victorious armies," said they, "should be answered by
cannonballs and not by insults as gross as they are ridiculous." This
opinion was shared by all the foreigners at that time in Hamburg.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

1805

Difficulties of my situation at Hamburg--Toil and responsibility--
Supervision of the emigrants--Foreign Ministers--Journals--Packet
from Strasburg--Bonaparte fond of narrating Giulio, an extempore
recitation of a story composed by the Emperor.

The brief detail I have given in the two or three preceding chapters of
the events which occurred previously to and during the campaign of
Austerlitz, with the letters of Duroc and Bernadotte, may afford the
reader some idea of my situation during the early part of my residence in
Hamburg. Events succeeded each other with such incredible rapidity as to
render my labour excessive. My occupations were different, but not less
laborious, than those which I formerly pe